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Halloween Horror Nights 2020 Old Speculation Thread

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I heard from a castmate in Orlando who also worked at Hollywood that Murdy did a special VIP lounge mini maze/zone one year. If they’re budgeting for stuff like that while the mazes still have black walls, their priories are all wrong. Even the RIP yours in Orlando aren’t that VIP.
 
Well if HHN is taking a year off, maybe this will help them start fresh and prioritize their creative decisions....like, IDK, cut the black walls, reduce the maze count for better quality, add more scares that aren't stuck in 2007.

Yes. End the gosh darn black wall boo hole transition moments. They always have toooo many.
 
I heard from a castmate in Orlando who also worked at Hollywood that Murdy did a special VIP lounge mini maze/zone one year. If they’re budgeting for stuff like that while the mazes still have black walls, their priories are all wrong. Even the RIP yours in Orlando aren’t that VIP.
That was in 2014, though frankly it barely counted as a zone, it was maybe 40 feet long and was made almost entirely out of any reused graveyard theming they had, with a total of like 2 performers in it.
 
I think the marketing stuff has more to do with location than the event itself, if that makes sense. Ellen shoots content here because she works here; celebrities attend the event because they can just drive to the park and spend an evening. If those things were true to Orlando, you’d see a lot more of it, I’m a thousand percent sure. They wouldn’t pass up that kind of publicity.

And the IP thing — again, there are lots of haunt events in this area, but HHN is one of the very few that can avail themselves to intellectual property, so they lean on that as a differentiator. In fact, they need to use IPs because if they tried to compete with originals, they’d fail more often than not because the caliber elsewhere is seriously that high. It’s why I always push back on having originals at HHN. Original mazes dilute the quality and uniqueness of the event, but that’s just my opinion, plenty of people disagree.

I will always point to the backlot, too. HHN is partly a celebration of horror, and Universal Studios Hollywood is hallowed ground. Orlando, like I said, is just a theme park. They have amazing resources at their disposal, mostly in the way of available space and infrastructure, but there’s an intangible quality that the movie studio brings to HHN Hollywood.
IP is fine for Hollywood. I get why they do it here. I personally hate it in Orlando though. I wish they didn’t share IP. They have so many better original ideas.

My biggest thing against Hollwood HHN is it’s overuse of metal and rock music. It gets tiresome. I’m not the type of person who thinks rock music should always be associated with Halloween. I like my Halloween to be more eerie and creepy. But that’s just my opinion. One or two music mazes every few years is fine but not every year. Not everyone likes heavy metal. Plus they overuse it throughout the park in Scarezones etc. You can’t escape it. I know Murdy is a big music buff and I think it’s time for a changing of the guard. His shtick is getting old now. Time for fresh ideas.
 
I hate to say it but the thing I'm tired of the most at Hollywood is EDM.
I mean thats the reason I was worried about Holidayz last year, luckily most of it was pretty solid in there or at the very least tolerable, even if only one song was original for the maze itself. I'm glad that they've slowly moved away from using Figure all over the park though, went from it being blasted in every zone to pretty much none of them, and only being in one maze, though I'm still torn up over the fact that they used dubstep in the Trick r Treat zone when the soundtrack for the movie is so good.
 
The heavy rock music was fine, but when they started doing EDM was annoying, for lack of a better of a word. The one thing KSF has over HHN is their scarezones are ACTUALLY terrifying and the best I've ever been through. I wish HHN would take notes, but also, KSF has a creepy environment in general so it's much more natural to deliver that style of creepy.
 
If there's one thing I don't get, it's the ***constant*** use of EDM.

Like seriously--EDM fits in certain things. Not the entire damn event.
I think pretty much the only reason is because its "high energy", which to a certain degree in theory can be ok since it can really highten the energy from the actors, but we've seen a lot in the past that high energy electronic music isn't necessary for actors to be high energy themselves, so I'm not really sure they're still doing it.
 
My biggest thing against Hollwood HHN is it’s overuse of metal and rock music. It gets tiresome. I’m not the type of person who thinks rock music should always be associated with Halloween. I like my Halloween to be more eerie and creepy. But that’s just my opinion. One or two music mazes every few years is fine but not every year. Not everyone likes heavy metal. Plus they overuse it throughout the park in Scarezones etc. You can’t escape it. I know Murdy is a big music buff and I think it’s time for a changing of the guard. His shtick is getting old now. Time for fresh ideas.

This is a very fair point, and this is one area Knott's really shines. They have a very diverse, intriguing use of music. Dead Can Dance, Jean Michel Jarre, Danny Elfman, and Ministry pop into mind right away, and that's just for starters. They do use some metal, but also use a lot of creepy ambient/movie soundtrack music.

I think pretty much the only reason is because its "high energy", which to a certain degree in theory can be ok since it can really highten the energy from the actors, but we've seen a lot in the past that high energy electronic music isn't necessary for actors to be high energy themselves, so I'm not really sure they're still doing it.

Also a fair point. I think they don't just want the scareactor's energy up, but also the guests. Funny how I've never really thought about it before, but I feel it's just the vibe HHN presents, so I just accept it. It's become their staple.

Criticism of its overuse is entirely justified, though.
 
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Hypothetically speaking, if ORL announces the mazes this week right after the BOGO sale ends, do y’all think we’ll hear something from Hollywood whether it’s officially cancelled or not?
 
Hypothetically speaking, if ORL announces the mazes this week right after the BOGO sale ends, do y’all think we’ll hear something from Hollywood whether it’s officially cancelled or not?
My bet is on tomorrow when the other ticket options for orlando go live, possibly with an announcement. Guess this is probably the last day we can say we don't know if its cancelled.
 
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